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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24590683">A journey began before leaving</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owaranai/pseuds/Owaranai'>Owaranai</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anger, Dark Past, F/M, Friendship, Future, Introspection, Love, Regret, Revenge, Self-Doubt, Self-Reflection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:29:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>682</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24590683</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owaranai/pseuds/Owaranai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The war was over and Sasuke was preparing to leave for his redemption journey.<br/>On that moonless night he found himself thinking about his life and about what had happened in those recent years.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A journey began before leaving</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
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<p><br/>
The war was over and Sasuke was preparing to leave for his redemption journey.</p>
<p>On that moonless night he found himself thinking about his life and about what had happened in those recent years.</p>
<p>He had spent much of his life looking for revenge, without worrying if he would have to leave his life in the village and his friends behind to achieve his goal. More than friends, at that time, he considered them ball and chain, actually.</p>
<p>Yet, despite being convinced that he was able to achieve his goals on his own, to be enough for himself, after the (attempted) killing of Orochimaru he couldn’t help but form his own team. He kept saying to himself that for his purposes he would need specific skills that he did not have, but was it really so?</p>
<p>Looking back, that evening, without that throbbing feeling in the background shouting revenge, Sasuke was not so sure anymore. Maybe that was just an excuse for not being alone. Perhaps the idea of being alone with himself annoyed him even more than being surrounded by petulant companion. To live with himself he needed distractions. And, if on the one hand, admitting it made him go crazy, on the other it made him feel at peace with himself.</p>
<p>Mixed and contradictory feelings.</p>
<p>He could now feel the same contradiction that had animated his whole life.</p>
<p>And now?</p>
<p>What would happen to him?</p>
<p>He was not so interested in the approval and acceptance of others. What he had most at heart was accepting and living with himself for the rest of his life: the most difficult task that every person has to face. Would he have been able to do it?</p>
<p>Every person's soul has a balance. Until now, its balance was based on hatred and revenge. Now what did he have left? What would have filled that void?</p>
<p>And while he was assailed by these doubts, Sakura appeared.</p>
<p>After exchanging a deep look, the pink hair girl sat on the bench next to him, starting to chat about her day in the hospital as if nothing had happened between them in the last few years.</p>
<p>Sakura knew that Sasuke would leave the village. She would have liked to shout at him with all his strength to stay, that everything would have been fine, but if there was one thing she had understood in those years it was that it would have served no purpose with him.</p>
<p>Sasuke perceived the girl's feelings from the tone of her voice, while her hands, tight on her lap, tortured one side of the shirt.</p>
<p>He knew that Sakura had always loved him, but it was at that precise moment that, for the first time, he really took into consideration the girl's feelings and what they meant. For a moment the idea crossed him, up to that time so far and impalpable, that, perhaps, he too might be able to love.</p>
<p>'What if I open my heart to her?'</p>
<p>'What if I show her my weakest and most hidden side?'</p>
<p>‘How would her react?’</p>
<p>A series of hitherto unknown doubts harassed him, shaking his soul.</p>
<p>Sakura didn't stop babbling, but he hadn't paid attention to a single word she had said.</p>
<p>He suddenly got up as Sakura stared at him questioningly.</p>
<p>He took a step towards the door that led out of the village.</p>
<p>Sakura got up too, and grabbed him by his wrist.</p>
<p>"Sakura - he said taking her hand gently in his - I promise you that I will come back"</p>
<p>He snapped a quick kiss on her forehead leaving the girl bewildered and gasping, and disappeared into the forest.</p>
<p>As he jumped fast from tree to tree, he found himself hoping, praying with all his strength, that this trip could really change his life. Let him find himself, make him accept the past, and help him lay the foundations for his future.</p>
<p>His soul would find its balance.</p>
<p>Maybe he still didn't realize it but, thanks to Sakura, his redemption journey had started even before setting a foot outside the village.</p>
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